Abstract:
This paper presents a highly efficient, fully parallelized implementation of the compact genetic algorithm to solve very large scale problems with millions to billions of variables. The paper presents principled results demonstrating the scalable solution of a difficult test function on instances over a billion variables using a parallel implementation of compact genetic algorithm (cGA). The problem addressed is a noisy, blind problem over a vector of binary decision variables. Noise is added equaling up to a tenth of the deterministic objective function variance of the problem, thereby making it difficult for simple hillclimbers to find the optimal solution. The compact GA, on the other hand, is able to find the optimum in the presence of noise quickly, reliably, and accurately, and the solution scalability follows known convergence theories. These results on noisy problem together with other results on problems involving varying modularity, hierarchy, and overlap foreshadow routine solution of billion-variable problems across the landscape of search problems.

Abstract:
This paper analyzes the relative advantages between crossover and mutation on a class of deterministic and stochastic additively separable problems with substructures of non-uniform salience. This study assumes that the recombination and mutation operators have the knowledge of the building blocks (BBs) and effectively exchange or search among competing BBs. Facetwise models of convergence time and population sizing have been used to determine the scalability of each algorithm. The analysis shows that for deterministic exponentially-scaled additively separable, problems, the BB-wise mutation is more efficient than crossover yielding a speedup of ?(l logl), where l is the problem size. For the noisy exponentially-scaled problems, the outcome depends on whether scaling on noise is dominant. When scaling dominates, mutation is more efficient than crossover yielding a speedup of ?(l logl). On the other hand, when noise dominates, crossover is more efficient than mutation yielding a speedup of ?(l).

Abstract:
This paper presents a population-sizing model for the entropy-based model building in genetic algorithms. Specifically, the population size required for building an accurate model is investigated. The effect of the selection pressure on population sizing is also incorporated. The proposed model indicates that the population size
required for building an accurate model scales as Θ(m log m), where m is the number of substructures and proportional to the problem size. Experiments are conducted to verify the derivations, and the results agree with the proposed model.

Abstract:
This paper analyzes the behavior of a selectorecombinative genetic algorithm (GA) with an ideal crossover on a class of random additively decomposable problems (rADPs). Specifically, additively decomposable problems of order k whose subsolution fitnesses are sampled from the standard uniform distribution U[0,1] are analyzed. The scalability of the selectorecombinative GA is investigated for 10,000 rADP instances. The validity of facetwise models in bounding the population size, run duration, and the number of function evaluations required to successfully solve the problems is also verified. Finally, rADP instances that are easiest and most difficult are also investigated.